


Video Proof

by Kira_Gold



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 20:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6485575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Gold/pseuds/Kira_Gold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alya was clutching her phone as if it was her greatest treasure. Heck, at the time it probably was — on it she had a footage of Ladybug transforming back to her civil identity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Video Proof

**Author's Note:**

> A first thing I post on here had to be a reveal fic. Well, I hope it turned out good at least...  
> Sorry if there will be any mistakes, English is not my native language so I can be wrong at times.

Nino and Adrien arrived at the same time. They exchanged confused glances — “Did she call you here too?” — and knocked at the door of Alya’s home. It swung open in less then a few seconds, almost if the girl was _waiting_ behind it. 

“Finally!” she shouted. “Guys, you won’t believe what I’ve got!”

“Is Marinette coming?” Adrien asked. Usually she was the first one Alya invites when she manages to dig out some information (which was usually on Ladybug), so the question was only logical. The girl, however, shook her head vigorously. 

“No, and you two better don’t tell her about what goes on in here, because I want to be the one!” she exclaimed enthusiastically, shutting the door behind the two boys and inviting them to her room. She kept bouncing around, almost unable to wait until they sat themselves on her bed and look at her questioningly. 

“So?..” Nino inquired. Alya signed for him to wait and unblocked her phone, looking for something inside of its multiple photo and video folders. She was clutching it as if it was her greatest treasure, it almost seemed that if either Adrien or even Nino tried to take it from her hands now, she would go completely mad. 

“So!” she said, her voice more energetic and much louder them usual. “I figured out Ladybug’s real identity!”

“Are you sure?” Adrian gazed at her sharply, but Nino just snorted and this claim.

“Last time you thought it was Chloé!” he remarked, not unfairly. “Listen, if you got me to come to the other part of the town because of another stupid suspicion, I’d be actually so mad!”

Usually Alya would snap something about her suspicions being “not stupid, rather totally justified!”, but now she only shook her head, finally getting some video on a screen of her phone. 

“No, it’s so much better! I managed to capture her transformation to civil identity _on tape_!” 

“You — what?!”

This seemed to come from both of her guests, as Nino opened his mouth wide in disbelief and Adrien stared at her in plain shock. Alya seemed to be satisfied with an effect this phrase had on two boys — she smirked cheekily and hit the off button on her phone. 

“So, if either of you think I’m wasting your time by calling you from across the city, you’re welcome to leave!” 

She was, of course, looking mostly at Nino, but right now Adrien seriously considered getting up and leaving. He _promised_ to Ladybug not to try to find out her true identity! Then again, now he wasn’t the one to do the job, it was only sheer luck that one of his friends videotaped it, so it wasn’t technically his fault, was it? Before he managed to decide on either staying or not, Alya figured that the silence means neither of the boys want to leave and switched her phone on again. Not so reluctantly Adrien fixed his eyes on the screen.

It showed Ladybug, sure enough. She was running down in one of the multiple metro station, and Agreste could even say when did it happen — today, in fact. After they battled another akuma and Ladybug used her Lucky Charm (to summon a paper knife, which actually helped the case), her transformation was running out, so she left Chat and dashed to the nearest underground station. He left immediately after, otherwise he may have noticed Alya following His Lady. The video wasn’t exactly the best quality, but it showed clearly enough how Ladybug stopped to look around, probably didn’t notice anyone who could see her and released her transformation. 

First there was a flash of pink light, and then, instead of the Paris superhero, there was a girl with exactly the same hairstyle, pretty much exactly the same blue eyes and in casual closing. She immediately caught a red kwami, floating around aloof, in her hands, placing it into a pink bag over her shoulder, and exhaled slowly. 

“Well, that was a close one!” she whispered loudly enough for Alya’s phone microphone to pick it up and then ran towards the other exit from the underground. The camera was following her before she turned behind the corner and got out of sight, and then finally there was Alya’s voice, almost shrieking:

“Oh. My. God!”

And the recording stopped there. 

“Dudes.” Nino finally said after almost a minute of silence. Césaire was almost beaming with pride. “Is that… Was that…”

“That answers your question of why didn’t I call Marinette here?” she turned to Adrien with a grin… Only to find him still staring into the void. “Hey, Earth to Adrien! I know this is surprising, I myself was stumbling around from shock for two hours after filming this (well, she _is_ my best friend!), but there’s no reason to look like this is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen!” 

Yes, Agreste was completely shocked. Right now he was somewhere on a stage of denial, although, no, these were stages of grief. He wasn’t sad that Ladybug was Marinette (or, rather, other way around), he was just — surprised. And from denial he would probably go straight onto acceptance, although he’ll still have to confront His Lady about this — Adrian didn’t even have a thought of hiding the fact that he knows her identity. Plus, they were friends, right? That is, if you ignore Mari’s constant weird behaviour around him… Wait, did _she_ know?! No, unlikely, she would’ve told him, and she’d act differently… right?

“What? Yes, no, I don’t know!” Adrian finally reacted to Alya jokingly shaking him. “I’m sorry, I was just kind of… startled?”

“We’ve noticed that!” Nino smirked. “Is this because you figured out your celebrity crush was actually the girl who sits behind you in, like, every class and, moreover, has a crush _on you_?”

“Wait, what?!” he frowned. His friend interpreted the question in a wrong way. 

“You think I didn’t know that you like Ladybug? C’mon, dude, it’s so obvious!”

“No, not that…” Adrian shook his head. “The thing about Marinette… having a crush… on me?!”

For a second Alya and Nino stared at each other, then exploded with laughs.

“Dude!” the boy said finally, after around ten seconds of hysterical laughter from both him and Césaire. “Did you not know?!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s the most obvious thing ever!” Alya agreed. “The way she acts around you and all that? Why do you think she can’t construct a simple sentence when talking to you?”

Adrian was looking at both of them with his eyes wide open. If Marinette had a crush on him… then does it mean Ladybug has been rejecting Chat Noir because of him, too?

 _“Listen, kitty, I’m sorry,”_ her words popped up in his head immediately, _“but there is a person I like already and he’s so sweet and nice, and I’m not saying you’re not, but… Listen, I have to go. Later, Chat.”_

That day she ran off although there was no battles and therefore she didn’t use Lucky Charm, moreover, it was one of their duo patrol days. Next time they met, however, neither of them mentioned the conversation they had, and now Adrien finds out… this?!

“Really?” he only managed to whisper. 

“Well, duh!” Alya nodded. “Hey, Nino, I think we just broke Adrien.”

“Well, you had me broken at ‘Marinette is Ladybug’ revelation,” Nino shrugged. “So, uh, what are you gonna do with this information now? Post it on LadyBlog?”

“No!” Adrian interfered almost too quickly, which made both his friends look at him interestedly. “I mean, not unless she allows and stuff…”

“Why do you _care_ this much?” Alya raised her eyebrows. It’s not like she was going to reveal the information anyways, but such reaction from Agreste made her pretty curious. “It’ll be a sensation, can you even imagine?”

“She keeps her identity secret for a reason and it’ll be dangerous to have it revealed like that and Hawk Moth is probably following your blog anyways and Marinette herself won’t like this and she’s been trying to hide it for so long, revealing it would make her mad…”

“And you’re repeating yourself,” Alya concluded. Adrian realised he was blabbering without even thinking much about his words. “Man, you seem really interested in her secret not leaking out. Why, I wonder…”

“I-it doesn’t matter, it’s nothing!” he shook his head. Nino looked him straight in the eyes, slightly smiling. 

“Dude, I’ve known you since childhood. You never speak like that about “nothing” and rarely get nervous. So I assume it’s actually something big. Either you’re in love with Marinette too and want to protect her,” (Alya let out a “Yay!”), “knew about her being Ladybug before, or, heck, Chat Noir. As in ‘You’re Chat Noir’.”

“Wh-wh-what made you think so?! Of course not!” 

This was probably too abrupt for either of them to stop suspecting him in any of these things, and in a second Adrien had two sceptical gazes fixed on him. 

“Well, he really was shocked when I showed you the video, so it’s unlikely he knew, and he can’t be Chat because…” Alya was probably trying to leave “You’re in love with Marinette too” argument as an only option, but hesitated. “Because… what? Nino, please, _please_ prove this wrong, otherwise I’ll feel like a total idiot.”

Part of Adrien wanted to quickly think of some arguments agains all this “He’s Chat” theory (oh God, how did their evening get to this), but the other one kind of wanted to make Césaire fell like an idiot. And the second part, honestly, was more in control. And it had Plagg on its side — Plagg, who had apparently woken up from all their screams and was now determined to get out of Adrien’s bag. Which he did, before either Nino or Alya could think of what to say. 

“Ladies,” he chimed in, climbing onto Adrien’s shoulder and absolutely ignoring the fact that there was only one girl in the room, “I can safely prove that at least one of your guesses was correct. Of course, it could be two, and as far as I know he had no idea of Ladybug’s identity before…”

“Plagg!” Adrien interrupted his ranting while Alya and Nino were staring at kwami in shock. Agreste sighed. “Well, since this little fellow is here, I guess I can’t really deny anything…”

He laughed nervously, and Césaire held her head in her hands, moaning angrily.

“Two of my best friends turned out to be Paris superheroes! And I never knew!”

“I know, right!” Nino nodded slowly, still looking at Plagg. “So, anyways, what is this… thing, exactly?”

“To let you know, I am the one responsible for Chat Noir’s transformations. Name’s Plagg.” The kwami bowed jokingly and flew up. “Now, you wouldn’t happen to have any cheese?”

“I might have some in the fridge…” Alya groaned. “Listen, Adrien, if you weren’t my best friend’s crush, I’d smack you. Actually, I still think I should. So better not give me reasons for it!”

“Well, I’m sorry,” the boy shrugged, “but I couldn’t tell you. Knowing who we are is dangerous — Hawk Moth might use anyone’s knowledge against us! Moreover, till this day we haven’t even known each other’s identities, and now I’ll have to confront La… Marinette about it, and who knows how she would react, since she was the one to insist on us not finding out, and this isn’t exactly the ideal scenario, so, you know…”

He looked away, leaving Nino and Alya to exchange somewhat guilty stares. Who knows how long the silence would’ve went on, if it wasn’t for Plagg, who flew directly towards Alya, stopping in the air right in front of her face. 

“Hate to interrupt you thinking process,” he remarked, “but I still want some cheese before Adrien has to leave for his patrol, so, if you would be so kind…”

“Yeah,” Alya nodded, slowly standing up and pointing in the direction of her kitchen. “Yeah. Follow me.”

***

This night on a patrol Ladybug was in a particularly good mood, jumping from roof to roof and swinging her yo-yo around. Chat Noir, as an absolute opposite, was quieter then usual, following her, but not speaking much. Finally the heroine noticed his strange behaviour and landed near her partner, looking at him worriedly.

“Hey Chat? Is something wrong?”

“Huh?” He didn’t even notice Ladybug was there before she spoke, and her words made him twitch. “No, yes, maybe, I don’t know!”

“That isn’t an answer I expected,” she admitted, sitting down on cold roof tiles. “Chat, we’re friends. You can tell me anything that worries you. I’d be happy to listen.”

“I would, really!” the cat frowned, sitting himself beside her. “But I don’t want you to be angry with me, and you probably will be, so…”

“Well, unless you were Hawk Moth all along, nothing you say would make me too mad”, she shrugged lightly after he fell silent, and gave her partner a supportive smile. “So go on, I’m listening.”

“Well…” Chat was quiet for a second, gathering his thoughts. “I might have by chance figured out who you are.”

“What?” Ladybug snapped after a second of hesitation. Her partner nodded.

“Exactly. I know how much you didn’t want that, but my friend might have videotaped your transformation — at least it wasn’t “live”, rather just a video — and she showed it to me and my other friend, and my kwami was kinda there too, so now two more people know our civilian identities, and so do I, and… I’m sorry. I understand if you’ll be mad.”

“No, I’m…” the heroine fell silent for some time. Adrien didn’t interrupt. “It’s fine. I mean, as long as they don’t share it with anyone else, that is… And you… Well, we were ought to find out some time, right?”

“Yeah. But, this might have still been wrong, you know, so I need to make sure, I guess… Marinette?” 

Calling his partner that felt strange, but somehow made sense. To be fair, Adrien was surprised he didn’t notice it earlier. After all, Mari even wore the same hairstyle as Ladybug, not to mention her voice and similarity in personalities, which he noticed quite often in class! 

“Uh-huh,” the girl replied after a second of hesitation. “So you were right after all. Marinette Dupain-Cheng to your service.”

They were quiet for some more time, Chat thinking of what to say and Ladybug staring at the lights beneath. Finally, she sighed and stood up. 

“So, are you going to return the honour?” she smiled weakly. “I mean, would be simply unfair if you know who I am and I don’t. Plus, since you knew my name, I assume we actually know each other in civilian?”

“Yeah,” Chat nodded. Before he wasn’t sure, if Marinette would want to know who he is, but the fact that she did made him happy. “But actually you can figure out who I am by me giving you one hint. See, the girl who filmed your transformation was Alya.”

“Alya?!” Ladybug groaned. “Oh, I knew she will be the death of me one day! But how is this supposed to… Wait.”

Chat was looking at His Lady, who was clearly trying to match some dots right now. Ladybug muttered something under her breath, her expression changing from confusion to shock. 

“So,” she said, her voice slightly trembling, “if Alya finds some information, she usually shares it with three people first. Well, I wasn’t on the list this time for obvious reasons, and it couldn’t be Nino, because I was fighting by your side when he was akumatised, but that only leaves… Adrien?” 

The last word was barely audible as she looked up at him, her eyes wide. Marinette covered her mouth, staring strait at Chat and thinking what would be better — if he proved her wrong or actually right. After few seconds of dramatic pause — yes, Adrien couldn’t resist the temptation to leave her in this state for a bit longer — he nodded and stood up too. 

“To your service as well, My Lady!”

She jumped away, almost falling of the roof this time, and tried to say something, but just ended up opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Chat giggled and waved his hand:

“Plagg, claws in. No point in hiding now.

Next moment, after a flash of green, the boy standing on the roof was, sure enough, Adrien. This seemed to make Marinette even more shocked, since she continued staring at him.

“Stop acting like this is the weirdest thing in your life, or I’ll think you’re disappointed it’s me!” Adrien laughed. Plagg, landing on his shoulder, yawned.

“This was exactly the way you acted when you found out she was Ladybug, so you’re not the one to judge” he remarked. 

“I-is this your kwami?” Ladybug smiled nervously, saying first thing she thought of. “A-and no, I’m not d-disappointed at all, why would I be, ju-just really, _really_ surprised… Oh well, Tikki, spots off, I guess!”

After another bright light of transformation, a little red spirit went flying towards Plagg, waving at him.

“Yeah, it is. And this one is yours, I assume? What’s her name?” Adrian smiled at the kwami. She smiled back and announced:

“I’m Tikki! Great to finally meet the one who managed to make Marinette fall in love twice!”

“Wh-what, Tikki, n-no, shut up!” Mari yelled, going bright red in the face. Agreste looked at her with a cheeky smile. 

“My, my. Did I hear this correctly?” he wondered, leaving two spirits talking to each other and slowly approaching Marinette. “Did this cat manage to _cat_ nap your heart?”

“This pun wasn’t even good,” Mari murmured, hiding her eyes. “But, I guess there’s no harm in admitting the truth… So yeah, sure, I guess… B-but if you don’t— ” 

Yeah, Chat Noir, no, Adrien, knew the best way to stop Ladybug (Marinette?) from stuttering like that. Two kwamis exchanged glances and nodded approvingly at the sight of two young people kissing each other in a white moonlight. Tikki knew that the rest of the night Marinette will be pacing around her room, saying something about “I kissed Adrien, no, Chat, I mean, these are the same, apparently but whatever, and it’s more like he kissed me, but oh my god!”, and Plagg realised that he’ll have to put up with Agreste being totally in love with Ladybug-Marinette and not shutting up about it, but both were glad that these two foolish at times humans were happy. 

“They were so amusing to watch though,” the black kwami remarked quietly. The red one couldn’t agree more. 

***

Next morning in school Marinette arrived only few minutes before the bell. Alya was already there, and as soon as she saw her friend approaching, she sprung up.

“Um-m, good morning!” she smiled timidly, not sure how to begin the conversation. Marinette sighed, shaking her head. 

“Yes, Alya, Chat told me everything yesterday. Yes, I am,” she looked around carefully, making sure the only one who can hear her apart from her friend was Nino (Adrien wasn’t there yet), “Ladybug, and I’m not mad that you found out and I am sorry I didn’t tell you earlier and I can explain everything after school. That’s all?” 

“Oh. Yes. Yes, that’s all,” Césaire nodded slowly, sitting back down, then smirked. “Oh, and yesterday Adrien told us, that neither of you knew each other’s identities, but I assume you do now… How did the revelation go?” 

She winked, but before Mari could answer, Agreste ran into the classroom, looking around. 

“Am I late? I’m not late!” he whispered in relief, then, before sitting down, went up to Marinette smiling at her. “Morning, My Lady!”

“Ch…Adrien, the fact that these two know doesn’t mean you can act like that in public!” Mari hissed, pointing at Nino and Alya. “There are still other people around! But, good morning, yeah. I hope you got enough sleep, unlike me…”

“If you think I could’ve slept after what happened yesterday, you’re so _fur_ from truth!” he laughed, finally sitting himself near Nino. 

“What is it with your puns getting worse and worse every time?” Marinette rolled her eyes, and then caught Alya’s intrigued gaze. “Oh no. No-no-no-no, girl, don’t stare at me like that! Adrien, you’ll be the one doing all the explaining, because I won’t be able to survive Alya’s interrogation!”

“Anything to save your life, m’lady,” Agreste winked and, before she could resist, kissed her hand. Chloé on the desk opposite dropped her lipstick on the floor and was about to storm up to Marinette and shout at her, but was stopped by the bell ringing. 

“Chat, I’m gonna kill you one day,” Mari whispered, and before Adrien turned away to face the front, he smirked. 

“And this will be the best death I could ever ask for.”

**Author's Note:**

> So... I hope you liked it? Yeah.


End file.
